The Solution to Pollution
Spring 2022
The Old Testament Law includes extensive instructions for the Jewish people regarding what is “unclean,” how one becomes “unclean” and how to become “clean” again. The ceremonial cleansing by washing with water prefigures spiritually being washed in the blood of the Lamb of God to be cleansed of sin. While the practices are ceremonial, teaching the necessity of spiritual cleanness for a proper relationship with a holy God, they also have hygienic benefits. Limiting contact with the “unclean” and the prescribed washings made ancient Jews among the cleanest of peoples.
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Pollution is not a modern problem. While the palaces and wealthy homes in ancient cities may have been clean, the streets and the nearby areas were generally polluted with everything from rotting table scraps and animal carcasses to excrement of all natures. With the inhabitants seeking to remain “clean,” Jerusalem and other Jewish cities lacked such pollution.
The old walled city of Jerusalem had several gates. A small one near the Temple was called the Dung Gate (Nehemiah 3:13-14, 12:31). The refuse of the city and the waste of the Temple sacrifices were carted through this gate to a place in the valley of Kidron where it was burned (2 Kings 23: 4-7).
Hygienic practices were not only to be observed when they were convenient. Part of a Jewish soldier’s equipment was to be a wooden spade. When he needed to relieve himself, he was to go outside the camp, dig a hole, and bury his excrement (Deuteronomy 23:12).
Natural Pollutants
Pollution happens when there is so much of something in a place that it affects the natural workings of the environment. A neighbor’s sound system causes noise pollution if it bothers you. Potential solutions for this are simple. He could adjust the volume or use earphones; you could use earplugs or move. Other pollution problems do not have as many evident solutions.
Today natural sewage, like that produced in ancient cities, is considered a biodegradable pollutant. Decomposer organisms, like bacteria and fungi, break down natural sewage into nutrients needed by other living things. An area would be polluted when it has so much biodegradable material that the decomposer organisms get significantly behind in their work. Generally the solution is to get the sewage to a place where the decomposers can do their work without adversely affecting an environment. That, essentially, is what modern sewage treatment plants do.
Sewage treatment is not a new concept. There is archeological evidence that as early as David’s reign, run-off and wastewater from Jerusalem was collected in ponds or settling basins. The sediment was used to fertilize fields and the water irrigated crops. Other Jewish cities had similar facilities.
Burning of natural biodegradable substances releases gasses and particles into the air. These are normal parts of the air and are dispersed by wind. While living downwind from Kidron’s waste dump may not have been pleasant or even healthy, most of the materials in the smoke were natural parts of the environment. Eventually the particulates fall (often attached to rain) and can be used by living things. For natural biodegradable substances, the solution to this pollution is some form of natural or assisted dilution. That is not the case with many man-made materials.
Modern Pollutants
Today we have an increasing abundance of materials that do not naturally decompose. For example, glass, aluminum, plastics, Styrofoam, and rubber are non-biodegradable substances. When no longer useful they often collect and thus pollute the environment.
Burning plastics, tires, and many man-made substances puts pollutants not found in any natural environment into the air. They will eventually fall somewhere. When small amounts of these substances are diluted in the atmosphere, the fallout may be unnoticeable. However, in time, massive amounts of these pollutants can build up and so pollute downwind environments that certain living things do not survive. For many non-biodegradable substances the solution to pollution is not dilution.
Today we also produce hazardous wastes: substances which harm living things that are exposed to them. While some hazardous wastes eventually deteriorate to non-hazardous substances, others do not. In the past, production of certain paints produced a stable hazardous waste which, even in tiny amounts, killed living things. To dispose of this type of waste, many producers placed them in containers and purchased remote sections of land on which to store the containers. In time the containers deteriorated, and the hazardous wastes leaked into the environment. Cleaning these “toxic waste sites” was a political, economic, and ecological nightmare. Nuclear power also produces hazardous wastes. Governments seem to do a better job of containing nuclear wastes, but they are still a significant problem.
Ancient Jews had no experience with non-biodegradable or hazardous wastes. The clean and unclean designations do not appear to apply to plastics that have served their purpose or to nuclear wastes. Seeking to modernize the Mosaic law, various Jewish rabbis have addressed the issue; however, they are adding their interpretations to the Law, a practice Christ condemns (Mark 7:1-23).
Some Christians assume that since God did not directly tell us how to deal with these substances they must be “worldly” and should be banned, or at least avoided. Essentially, these people are taking the position that, since there is no natural way to deal with these pollutants, humans have crossed the line regarding what we may and may not do with the physical world. Is there such a line? That will be a topic in the next article of this series.
Science to the Rescue – Sort Of
Science does a pretty good job of eventually solving many physical problems. That, after all, is the God-ordained purpose of science. Problems with many variables often take time to solve—but eventually answers surface. Occasionally when more is learned, an apparent answer needs to be modified or completely discarded. This has often happened with pollution solutions, and has been the source of science receiving bad public relations. Another problem with acceptance of science-based suggestions is that they are usually more expensive and less convenient. More negative PR for science.
One method of solving a pollution problem is to produce less or none of the pollutant. When the companies responsible for toxic waste sites were forced to spend vast amounts of money to clean them, methods of producing their product without the hazardous by-product were soon found. It often made the products more expensive, but it was cheaper than toxic waste cleanup.
Plastic is another matter. Much of it does not recycle well, and by design plastics are environmentally stable. Although we are encouraged to use less of it, plastic is so cheap and convenient that we have become addicted to its use. Scientists are working on solutions. There are a few possibilities on the somewhat distant horizon.
Another method of solving a pollution problem is to recycle. This has met with different degrees of success. Reusing glass containers works well. Aluminum collection and reprocessing may soon be cheaper than mining more aluminum—which will greatly foster its recycling.
To save trees, paper recycling became popular. Ecologically, however, it was costly. The collection and processing needed to convert waste paper into usable paper or other products requires significant resources. Tree farms to produce paper proved more sound both ecologically and financially.
A Christian Response
Is God looking down from heaven, shaking His head, saying “If I had known they were going to go this far, I would have given them more detailed instructions.” No! He knows the end from the beginning. Nothing catches Him by surprise. He knew about these pollutants long before He closed the Scriptural canon. The Bible contains what we need to know to live a life pleasing to Him.
Does Scripture address the cutting back on production of non-biodegradable pollutants, the elimination of hazardous wastes, or recycling? Do not bother looking up these terms in a Bible concordance—they are not there. But just because the terms and the conditions they describe are of modern origin does not mean that principles that can be applied to them are not found in Scripture.
Just how “green” should a Christian be? Lord willing, that will be the topic of the final article in this series.